Mario's Pollen Allergies
by PrincessSara1998
Summary: Completing one stage in a Mario game isn't always the easiest thing to do. But you know what makes it harder? Having a sneezy pollen allergy at the same time. Mario learns that the hard way.


"Gah..." Mario groaned a little as he sniffled audibly. He brought his arm up to rub his nose, which was a slight but noticeable shade of pink and tickling constantly.

It was a warm spring day in the Mushroom Kingdom - usually, a day Mario would take some time to enjoy once he had defeated Bowser once again. There was one problem, however: the amount of pollen in the air was higher than usual.

You see, as quite a few other residents in the Mushroom Kingdom did, Mario was allergic to pollen. But his allergy was a bit more unique than others; in fact, how severe his allergies were seemed to vary from one day to another. One day they could it so mild that it didn't even affect him. But the next, a single grain of pollen landing on his nose could make him break into a sneezing fit. Or maybe it was the sensitivity of Mario's nose that increased or decreased every day. He couldn't quite tell.

But what Mario did know was that today, his allergies and the pollen that was setting them off were getting the best of him.

"Aaah..." Mario suddenly inhaled, pulling his arm away from his nose without knowing what he was doing. His nose was twitching even more than it had been a couple of minutes ago. "Haaaaaah..." He tilted his neck slightly back as his nostrils flared up slightly, and a small amount of tears formed in his eyes.

Despite that his nose was still itching like crazy, Mario really wanted to stop his sneeze so he could get back to completing the stage. With whatever strength he had left in his body, he tilted his neck back to its normal position, and began to rub under his nose vigorously with the side of his hand. The urge to sneeze didn't get any stronger than it was now, and even got a little weaker - while still being there.

"Ugh!" Mario groaned again, still rubbing his nose. "I need-a some allergy m-medicine..."

After a few seconds of massaging his nose, Mario became convinced that he wasn't going to sneeze after all. He pulled his hand away from his nose and gave a deep sniff to soothe it just a little more. But just as he performed that last action, the wind blew a particularly thick cloud of pollen toward him - and it found its way right up Mario's nostrils.

"AAACK!" Mario's eyes went wide for a moment as his blue irises shrunk, and the whites of his eyes filled with much more tears than there were when he first needed to sneeze. His nose not only twitched more, but turned a blood red and rumbled furiously, his nostrils flaring up to several times their normal size. Mario immediately sent his head as far back as it could go, took a massive inhale that might as well have been acted, and then exploded.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH-TTTTTTTTTCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Mario shot his upper body forwards, firing a good amount of spray and mucus from his mouth. The earsplitting sneeze echoed throughout the level, causing Goombas to cringe, Koopas to hide in their shells and Piranha Plants to retreat back into the Pipes from which they constantly popped out of. The sneeze was mighty and a bit painful, but it wasn't enough relief for Mario's nose. Tilting his upper body back again, Mario entered a sneezing fit, further startling the unfortunate enemies in earshot.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH-TTTTTTTCCCCCCHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! HaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH-SSSSSSSHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AAAAAAAH-CCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! Hehh... HEHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! HAAAAAAAAH-CHEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW! Aaaaaaah-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH- SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Following that final sneeze, which was easy to compare to the first in terms of loudness and forcefulness, Mario's sneezing fit finally ended. But his nose was still red and leaking with mucus, and the allergic tears from his reddened eyes were streaming down his face. His throat was feeling sore, too.

Mario sniffled loudly as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger. He tried to speak, but the only thing that came out was a feeble, stuffy-sounding "Mama Mia..."

As he continued to rub his nose, he reached into the pocket of his overalls, hoping to find a tissue or a handkerchief that he could blow and wipe his poor nose on. All he found, however, was a single tissue, the last one he had at the time. Sighing, Mario blew his nose only a little bit, then wiped his nose constantly with his tissue. His nose kept running for a little bit, but eventually stopped, and his nose lost its red tinge as well.

He then threw out his tissue and went back to going through the stage. He reached the flagpole and got into the castle in the nick of time, but by that time, he was feeling a bit worn out. He probably hadn't fully recovered from his allergy attack, even though he was feeling a lot better.

So Mario decided to take a short break from his adventure and returned home for a few minutes. After he had gotten some more tissues as well as a handkerchief for any further allergy-related mishaps, Mario checked the medicine cabinets for some allergy medicine.

There weren't any more left, but he was sure he could manage for now. He wrote a reminder on a sticky note, placed it on the refrigerator and left his house, heading for the stage he needed to complete next.

And on the sticky note were the words: "Need more allergy medicine for Mario." Hopefully Luigi would run out and buy some more if he read the note.


End file.
